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CdM stays on top

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IRVINE — Prior to kickoff, the PA announcer sifted through the Corona del Mar High football team’s roster to make sure he had the right names.

Most of the names sounded wrong.

“This is last year’s roster,” the announcer said before University’s band took the field at Irvine High. “I need this year’s roster.”

The players from CdM sure resemble the players from last season. This version is proving to be just as unbeatable as last season’s in Pacific Coast League play.

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The Sea Kings torched the host Trojans for six touchdowns in the first half en route to a 49-21 blowout win on Thursday night.

No team has been able to knock off CdM in the past nine league contests dating back to last year.

With the league finale next week, the Sea Kings (8-1, 4-0 in league) will most likely have to defend their league title against Beckman.

The top-ranked and second-ranked team in the CIF Southern Section Southern Division will play for the league crown, if Beckman (6-2, 3-0) gets past Irvine Friday.

“We’ve always hoped that it would,” said CdM Coach Scott Meyer, when asked if he wanted it to play out this way, the Sea Kings and Patriots meeting for the league title at Newport Harbor High. “We expected Beckman to be there and we’d hope we would be the other team there to try to play for that league championship.”

The Sea Kings expect a dogfight if they plan to claim back-to-back league titles for the first time since they won in 1987 and ’88. It won’t be easy, especially as it was against University.

The Trojans (3-6, 1-3) challenged Beckman a week ago, losing 24-21 on a last-second field goal. Their latest contest was over in the first quarter.

Forty-nine seconds in, quarterback Brent Lawson broke a CdM regular-season passing record. On a simple swing pass, Lawson threw his 19th touchdown of the year, breaking the record set by Mitch Sands three years ago.

Josh Giger helped Lawson out with an impressive run-after-the-catch effort. The senior did most of the work on the 51-yard touchdown.

Lawson and Giger were just getting started.

Giger scored the Sea Kings’ second touchdown. This time, he rushed into the end zone on a seven-yard end-around play. The touchdown on the ground was the first of two by Giger, who recorded his first three-touchdown game.

Giger and Lawson have found a rhythm in the past two weeks, hooking up 14 times for 260 yards and three touchdowns in the air.

Lawson didn’t go Giger’s way for his second touchdown pass late in the first half. Lawson hit Jake Johnstone for a 16-yard score. The result put Lawson two away from tying CdM’s single-season touchdown passing record of 22 set by Taylor Hughes five years ago.

With next week’s game against Beckman and the playoffs starting in two weeks, Lawson has plenty of time to surpass Hughes.

The Sea Kings pulled Lawson before the fourth quarter after he finished with 278 yards on 18-of-25 passing.

What was left for CdM to accomplish?

The team put up a season-high 49 points and the offense didn’t do all the scoring.

Frasier Anderson returned an interception 92 yards for a touchdown right before halftime.

Meyer said the Sea Kings turned in their best offensive effort in league and it was a balanced attack. Running back Erik Fisher scored two rushing touchdowns in the first half in which he produced 80 of 86 yards.

“We were trying to make sure we came out from the [start] and turned it up, and play like we can right from the beginning, rather than try to scramble back from 20 points [down] like we had [to in the third quarter of last week’s 31-30 road win against Woodbridge],” Meyer said.

Giger, who finished with eight catches for 119 yards, is hopeful CdM can perform at a high level against Beckman.

“We played them last year [in] two away games,” said Giger, whose team capped an outright league crown with a 17-15 win against the Patriots at Tustin High, but then three weeks later on the same field, CdM lost in the semifinals to Beckman, 24-3. “This game [will be] senior night, [a] home game [for us].

“It should be close. They have a couple of good guys.”

The Sea Kings’ roster shows that Corona del Mar has a plethora of weapons, if not more than last year’s roster.

david.carrillo@latimes.com

Twitter:@DCPenaloza

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Corona del Mar 49, University 21

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Corona del Mar 21 – 21 - 7 - 0 – 49

University 0 – 14 - 7 - 0 – 21

FIRST QUARTER

CdM – Giger 51 pass from Lawson (Garrett kick), 11:11.

CdM – Giger 7 run (Garrett kick), 6:51.

CdM – Fisher 5 run (Garrett kick), 1:34.

SECOND QUARTER

U – Aminzadeh 44 interception return (Stanek kick), 11:36.

CdM – Fisher 4 run (Garrett kick), 10:07.

U – Stanek 1 pass from Christy (Stanek kick), 6:58.

CdM – Johnstone 16 pass from Lawson (Garrett kick), 2:40.

CdM – Anderson 92 interception return (Garrett kick), 0:24.

THIRD QUARTER

CdM – Giger 9 run (Garrett kick), 5:49.

U – Stanek 3 pass from Christy (Stanek kick), 2:00.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

CdM – Fisher, 12-86, 2 TDs.

U – Aminzadeh, 9-43.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

CdM – Lawson, 18-25-1, 278, 2 TDs.

U – Christy, 11-22-1, 164, 2 TDs.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

CdM – Giger, 8-119, 1 TD.

U – Stanek, 6-111, 2 TDs.

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